Dear Diary
by Puff the Fishxx
Summary: When Tifa's online game crashes, she finds Cloud's online journal instead. When Cloud's playing hide and seek he finds a little white diary. Enough said.
1. Chapter 1

Diclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy...so yeah...

Puff the Fishxx: So here's Dear Diary for ya. I went through and edited it. Hope it's better than when I first posted it.

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"Denzel? Denzel? Come on, where are you?" he calls through the house. He sighs, and looks under Tifa's bed, trying to find Denzel or Marlene. They had guilted him into playing hide and go seek with them and so far they were winning. 

Suddenly, he heard a little girl's giggle, and a little boy telling her to shush. Cloud chuckled, and actually managed a small, barely visible smile as he saw one of the small toes recoil back under the curtains below the window. Cloud slowly walked towards the door, before stopping at the mantel. He suddenly whips around, dashing to the curtain, and pulls it back. The two children squeal, and run out the door, leaving Cloud standing there, smiling that same small smile.

"Cloud!?" He suddenly heard his name being called.

"Yeah!" he responds.

"What did you do to those two?! You made them scream bloody murder!!" Tifa yells up the stairs, as a door bangs. The two children must have run outside.

"We were just playing hide and seek!" Cloud calls, as he listens to Tifa walk away from the bottom of the stairs and back to the counter.

Cloud sighs, and begins to walk out of the room, when something catches his eye. Pausing, he turns to look at the corner of a book sticking out from beneath the frilly, white pillow on Tifa's bed. His brow burrows, as he walks over and pulls it out. "Diary" was written in bold gold lettering on the front of the white leather bound book. He knew he should put it back, as he turned it over in his hands, but the temptation was just too great. There was no lock; it was open to him. All of Tifa's thoughts at the turn of a page. He had always wondered what went on in that mind of hers...

…

….

……

He'd leave it alone for now.

…

Or not.

He looks outside the door, looking first to the right then to the left. There was no one there. Tifa was downstairs, the children were outside, and customers weren't allowed up in the living area. Quietly shutting the door to Tifa's room, he sits down on the clean, white comforter that adorned Tifa's twin sized bed, and let's the book fall open on his lap to the first page. The first thing he noticed was a picture that was taped to the inside cover. It was a picture that Marlene had drawn of she and Tifa sitting in a patch of pink and yellow flowers. (The people were stick figures, but the resemblance was still there and it was obvious who it was.) The second thing he noticed was a letter written to Tifa on the cover page. It reads:

_"Dear Tifa,_

_Happy birthday! I hope you have a better year than this last one. Use this diary as an outlet, instead of beating up Cloud when you guys train. Okay?_

_Yuffie"_

"Yuffie?" Cloud mutters, cocking his head. Shrugging he turns the page, meeting the first entry. There was no date it just started as "Dear Diary" which, to Cloud, was odd. Didn't people usually add the date? He shook his head, and began to read:

_"Dear diary,_

_He hasn't been acting very nice today. He's quiet and depressed (more so than normal). I can't get through to him today, it's like he's in another world. He's got Denzel depressed too. He shirked his duties, and went off driving for hours, and when he came back he was covered in dirt and dust. It didn't hit me until now though, that I realize it's the anniversary. The one where he's always like this for the entire week. It's the one of the few anniversaries he recognizes, other than Denzel's, Marlene's, and my birthdays. He doesn't even remember his own when it comes around. But he remembers this one._

_I don't think he'll ever get over it, even after he claimed to have seen her forgive him, and heal him from his Geostigma. I think he's forgiven himself though, and I think he's forgiven a lot of things, but there's still some things he refuses to forgive, and I can't get deep enough into his mind to figure out what they are and how to help him with his problems. It frustrates me, and even worse it worries Marlene. I don't want her to be sad, and I'd like to tell him exactly what I thought, but I don't know what that would do._

_Sometimes, I'm terrified of him. He never smiles, and he rarely seems happy. He's nice, yes, but that's not good enough for Denzel and Marlene. I don't want Denzel to be disappointed in his hero, like his hero was when he was Denzel's age. I want Denzel's role model to be better so he had better shape up!_

_I have to go now. He's coming. I don't want him to read this._

_Tifa"_

"Who's….He?" Cloud mutters to himself. "Wait a minute." He says, and rereads the entry.

"Is that…about…me?" he asks, jerking his head up, and looking at himself in the vanity mirror above Tifa's mahogany dresser. "I terrify her?" He says, looking at himself as though he were trying to see if his face had turned into something hideous.

"Cloud?" He hears his name called, and quickly shoves the diary back under the pillow. He'd read more later.

"Coming!" He calls, standing up. He quickly smoothes out her bed, not wanting her to know he was even in here and walks down the short flight of stairs.

"You have a delivery to make." Tifa says, as Cloud walks up to her. "Cloud?" she says, cocking her head.

Cloud was looking at her eyes. He hadn't heard a word she had said, he was too focused in trying to see if he could see fear in her eyes. He suddenly saw it appear, and stepped back. He had scared her again. Great.

"What?" he says quizzically, shaking his head.

"You have a delivery." She says quickly, handing him a small, crudely wrapped brown package.

He takes it gently from her hands. "Sorry." and he walks out the door quickly before she could say anything. He didn't want to hear her forgive him for some reason. Maybe he didn't want her to forgive him because then he'd hurt her all over again later.

Mounting his motor bike, he opens the side compartments, and takes out one of his swords. From the directions written on the side of the box he knew he'd need it out soon. He didn't like riding in the desert too often. It was a rough place, and was hard on his skin. Pulling down his goggles over his eyes, he turns the key in the slot, and lifts the kick stand before taking off toward his destination.

As he rode along the road his mind lingered on Tifa's diary. It bothered him that she thought maybe he would let Denzel down, like Sepheroth had done to him. It also made him anxious that he frightened Tifa the way she said he did, and it bothered him that she didn't think he was a good role model. He suddenly bent his head slightly, and sighed. _He _didn't even think he was a good role model, why should Tifa think that?

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_Puff: Please review._


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Final Fantasy, or Final Fantasy 7: AC

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Tifa sighed, and stretched as she set the last chair on top of the table. She had just closed for the night, and was ready to just lie down or sit in a chair. She yawns, and turns off the lights before going up the stairs. Marlene and Denzel were already asleep in their beds, and she felt rather tired too. As she passed by the guest room, where Cloud usually slept whenever Denzel and Marlene made him stay, she noticed his computer was up and running. She cocks her head, and pauses in the doorway.

"I wonder if anyone's on." She mutters, logging onto his computer.

She types in Cloud's username SwrdBoy256 (Denzel had made it for him), and then his password (Ars768). Often, Tifa had gone onto his computer account and played an online game that she had become attached to. Yuffie had signed her up on it, and now they both played on it. It was a battle game really. You made your character and went around kicking other people's and creatures butts. Nothing she hadn't done in real life, actually, but it was still fun to go head to head with Yuffie without the danger of one of them dying.

The game allowed her access, and she types in her username for the game: Trix02. She scanned her friends list, and smiled as she saw that Ninjaness76 was on. She had enough time to send Yuffie a message of greeting before she was kicked off of her game.

"Ugh!" she cries in disgust, trying to get back on, but it refused to let her back on. "No!" She says, smacking Cloud's computer monitor. It whirs for a second before a little message pops up:

System Error:

For the safety of the user please reboot the computer immediately.

Tifa sighs, and did as the computer said. It was a pain to have to log in again, but Tifa was feeling bad about leaving Yuffie on the game without a word of good bye. As the computer whirred to life she glanced over at the clock to see 11:00 pm flash in bright green letters. Again she sighs and turns her head to look back at the computer. As she does so she notices something odd scribbled on a piece of paper next to his monitor. She cocks her head, and picks it up. It had a website on it, in Cloud's handwriting: That was an odd website. Below it was what seemed like a username: Cloud6. Tifa shrugs, that made sense to her. Cloud had six swords and his name was, well, Cloud. Below the username was another word that looked like it could be his password: 86775940.

"I wanna know what this is." Tifa mutters to herself, as the monitor blips on. She grasps the mouse and double clicks an icon on the desktop that opened her to the web. She typed in the website and came up to a black screen with a tiny box in the center asking for username and password.

"Odd…" Tifa says softly as she types in the nescessary information.

She was taken to another screen, but this one was different. It looked like Cloud had decorated it or something. Around the edges was a border of swords that were moving back and forth in a jerky motion. In a little box on the top left corner was a picture of Denzel and Marlene, and below that were a couple other usernames that she assumed must be his friends. She saw one that was familure: Ninjaness76.

Tifa rolled her eyes, "Of course. Yuffie." She mutters. On the right side there were some links that looked like dates. Above them was the title "Journal Entries".

Tifa cocks her head, "Cloud keeps an online journal?" Her eyes widen. _"Everybody can read it!"_ she thinks to herself in fascination, unable to believe that he would be so open to everybody else on the wide web, and not her. _"What does he write about me?"_

She suddenly grasped her mouse tightly and clicked on the bottom link which would take her to the first entry. A new box appears and she sees that the entry is about half of a page long.

_Hey,_

_Yuffie signed me up on this thing. I don't like it very much. It's not very private. She'd better not sign Tifa up. I don't want her to know that I write things on the internet instead of talking to her. She'd get mad._

_I'm trying to figure out something though. Denzel was helping me make deliveries in town today and he asked me if I could teach him how to fight. I'm not sure about that though. For some reason, I don't want him to know how to kill things. Not sure why. I told him we'd see, and he seemed fine with that, but I could tell that he was kind of depressed that I hadn't said 'yes'. Tifa would probably kill me if she knew that I was even thinking about teaching him how to fight with swords. I feel bad about all of it though. I want Denzel to be happy, but I'm not sure I want him to be like me, like he said he wanted._

_People get mad at me easily, especially Tifa. I think it's because I don't talk so much, and I run away pretty easy. I think that last battle with Sepheroth jerked me around a lot. I kinda just had to figure it out, even if Tifa was trying to tell me the same thing all along. She yelled at me, and told me how mad she was, and that's when I kind of started listening to her. Usually I'd just kind of tune her out. Besides, no one wants an angry Tifa after them._

_Cloud6_

Tifa sat there with her mouth hanging open. "I do NOT yell all the time!!" she yells, standing up and clenching her fists. In realization her eyes widen, and she quickly sits back down. "Okay, so I do a little bit…" she mutters.

Letting out a sigh all she could think to do was sit there miserably. So did this mean Cloud was scared of her? Was he always quiet so that he would never offend her? She was pretty sure that he felt that no matter what he did he would probably get yelled at. She grunted angrily; she didn't want Cloud to be afraid of making her mad, and it made her sad that he felt that way.

"He won't have to feel that way anymore." Tifa mutters under her breath, "I'll not yell so much. Piece of cake." She says, standing up. She reaches down for the mouse, grasps it, and clicks on the 'X' button to exit out of the box so she could read another entry.

Unfortunately, she was suddenly interrupted as a new box popped up unexpectedly, startling her.

The message went like this:

"**Ninjaness76**: Hey Cloud! What's up? Can you believe this?! Tifa got on our game, sent me a message then suddenly signed off! How rude is that?!"

Tifa panicked. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't let Yuffie know, or anybody else for that matter, that she was looking at Cloud's personal journals.

"What would Cloud say, what would Cloud say?!" She says frantically. "Uh…oh! I know!" she says and begins to tap the keys.

"**Cloud6**: Hey. She does that to me sometimes.

**Ninjaness76**: Really? You guys talk on the computer?

**Cloud6**: No, she hangs up on me whenever she gets mad on the phone.

**Ninjaness76**: Oh. That makes more sense. So she still has no idea you have anything to do with electronics, computer wise?

**Cloud6**: No.

**Ninjaness76**: She's gonna be ticked if she finds out.

**Cloud6**: Yeah.

**Ninjaness76**: Let's hope you don't die.

**Cloud6**: You and me both. Listen, I'm tired, I just got back from making a delivery. I'm going to bed.

**Ninjaness76**: Okay. Good night, Cloud!

**Cloud6**: Good night."

Tifa had no choice but to sign off of the website now, or else Yuffie would suspect something. So, with a great sigh, she clicks the 'Exit' button on the top right of the screen, and clicked out of the web box. She signs off of his computer, and presses the button to turn off the monitor.

So Yuffie thought that she got mad easily too. Well, she _was _mad. She was mad Cloud hadn't told her, and she was mad that he and Yuffie had gone behind her back. She wondered who else knew about this. Probably Cid. He was a real geek with computers.

Clenching her fists she quietly marches to her bedroom, and pulls out her diary from underneath her pillow. Opening to the cover, she looked and saw that someone had bent the first page. She smoothes it out, and flattens the crease, before setting it under a dictionary and an encyclopedia so that it would flatten it out.

"I'll write in it tomorrow night." She mutters, kicking her shoes off. She didn't even bother to get under her covers, but merely turns off the lamp and rests her head on the pillow. She didn't sleep well that night, and she was still awake at two in the morning when she heard Cloud come back in with his delivery.

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_Puff: Please Review :D_


	3. Chapter 3

Puff the Fishxx: Three down. 14 to go? I forget how many chapters.

Disclaimer: Usual stuff. I don't own Final Fantasy.

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_

_'Hey,_

_It's Cloud6 again. I'm not sure what I'm doing on the computer at four in the morning, but I suppose…it doesn't matter too much.'_

Tifa had logged onto Cloud's computer account once again (she had closed up the shop, and put the two children to bed before rushing up to the computer.) It was driving her crazy to not know what he thought about certain things about her, or any of their other friends. Such things as: Did she really yell too much? Was she mean? Was she intimidating? Was he ever jealous? Did he get mad at her? Did he worry about her sometimes? These things and more rattled through her brain as she scanned through this second entry frantically to see if it would answer anything.

_'I think I was worried this morning.'_

"_Okay, so he was worried. About what?"_ Tifa thought to herself.

_'Tifa was a bit more ticked off at me than normal.'_

"_I was having a bad day…"_ Tifa thinks, looking down at her hands. She remembered that day; she had taken her anger out on Cloud and it made her feel a bit guilty knowing that he had noticed and that it had worried him.

_'Yuffie said it was nothing, and even though I don't trust Yuffie's instincts so much I'll leave it at that. There's a bigger problem. Vincent says that there has been some strange movement by Rufus and Reno. He says they've been acting funny, and I've noticed it too. They keep asking me questions, personal questions. Then they ask Vincent questions about me, and no doubt they've been asking Cid, Yuffie, and Tifa._

_It's been stuff like: "What do you do in your spare time?" or "How much money you make a year?" or "What's your favorite color?" It's weird. I told them to bug off but they're persistant.'_

Tifa's eyes widened, and she bit her lip. "I told Reno to see if he could help me get Cloud a girlfriend…I didn't know he'd butt into Cloud's personal life…" she mutters, blushing. "I was just joking when I asked anyway…"

_'I'll probably ask Tifa if they've been asking her odd questions. I don't want them bothering her, she seems like she's stressed enough already without them bugging her about me. She does that on her own time anyway; bugging me about stuff. Gets a little annoying, but everyone gets annoying sometimes anyway, even I get annoying which isn't very surprising if you know me.'_

"_I'm annoying?!"_ Tifa thinks to herself, her mouth dropping._ "How am I annoying?!" _she asks herself, her cheeks glowing red with anger.

The last sentence of the entry was: _'Oh well. Least when Reno asks her out she can bug him instead.'_

"WHAT?!" Tifa screams, standing up. Her fists clench tightly. "What does he mean 'Reno asks her out'?!" she says loudly. "Since when did Reno take an interest in _**ME**_?!"

"Tifa?" A small voice calls down the hall.

"Marlene." Tifa whispers, nearly tripping over herself to log off the computer and shut it down.

The computer's screen had just gone black as little Marlene shuffled around the corner. "Tifa? Why are you yelling, Tifa?" She says softly, yawning quietly.

"It's nothing, Marlene, I was…it was just nothing." She smiles down at the young child.

Marlene cocks her head and looks at Tifa to see if she were lying or not. Yawning she finally decides that Tifa was fine and that she could go back to bed. So, she shuffled off in her little white night gown, back to her bed, leaving Tifa standing there alone.

"Phew…" Tifa sighs, as her adrenaline rush dies down. "That was close…" She walks quietly and swiftly out the door to her room, to her relief.

It was only eleven thirty, and so Tifa decided that she had enough time to write in her diary. She pulls it out from beneath the books and looks at it. She opens it with a soft sigh and sits on her bed with her back towards the door, picking up her pen.

"Dear diary…" she says out loud, before going silent and writing down several thoughts about Marlene, Denzel, a rude customer, Reno, and Cloud. "…Reno likes me, I'm pretty sure he does, but I don't think he's a good family guy. See, when I date I like to look at the guy as maybe a future husband, not a few month thing. Reno's just a little bit too immature for that…" Tifa mutters, as she writes in her diary. She had a habit of saying aloud what she was writing.

"Really?" someone says at the doorway.

Tifa yelps, and jerks around to see who had intruded on her sacred privacy, and gulps to see Cloud standing there. She blushes hard, but otherwise seemed unphased. "Uh…hi." She says as determindly as she could manage. How long had he been standing there? Probably long enough to hear the beginning of her journal entry.

"So, you found out about Reno." Cloud says, walking in slowly. He stands there in front of her, leaning his back against the wall. "How'd you find out?"

"It was…obvious?" Tifa lies, looking up at him and smiling nervously.

"Not really." Cloud says, looking out the window.

"You knew, obviously." Tifa accuses, trying to change the subject.

"True, but I kept a good secret." Cloud says, looking back at her. "How'd _you_ find out?"

"Yuffie." Tifa says, nodding her head quickly.

"Figures." Cloud rolls his eyes ever so slightly.

"Don't tell anyone, I don't want Yuffie in trouble." Tifa says quickly, trying to make sure she didn't get Yuffie in trouble with her lie.

"Okay." Cloud says, before walking out the door. "I'm going home." He calls back.

"If you call a broken down church a home!" Tifa calls after him, before sighing and laying back down on the bed. "I hope Yuffie doesn't get in trouble. Please, Cloud, don't hunt her down…" she mutters, as she hears the door downstairs open and close before hearing the motorbike rev up and drive off.

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Puff the Fishxx: Please review.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy...any of them...

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Cloud woke up with a low moan, as his alarm clock buzzed in a high pitched squeal. His hand reached over and slamed down on the clock, missing the button. He hits it a few more times until the clock obeys and turns off. He takes advantage of the silence, and rolled over on his other side, thaking a deep breath of relief before being overcome with chill bumps, as though someone were watching him. He opened his eyes slightly, before widening them, screaming, and jumping back as he saw two little faces close to his. He fell off the other side of the bed, hitting his head on the night stand.

"Cloud!" Marlene cries, running around the bed to him.

Cloud shakes his head and looks up at her. She in turn looked down at him with concern, as Denzel runs around the bed as well to join her. Standing up slowly, Cloud massaged the back of his head and took in deep breaths. He looked down at his hand, as he brought it around to see if there was any blood. There was none, to his relief.

He had slept in his clothes that night. He had just gotten in too late to care and had plopped down on his bed and fallen to sleep. He had been held up by a traffic jam at the outskirts of town, and had been forced to a stop for three hours while the wreckage was cleared.

"What are you guys doing up so early?" Cloud asked, glancing at the clock which glowed 6:45 AM.

"We woke up and couldn't get back to sleep." Marlene said, rocking back and forth on her heels and clasping her hands together behind her back.

Denzel nodded. "Tifa told us you had spent the night here, so we came in to see you before you went to make another delivery." He begins to explain, looking up at Cloud, who was staring down at them with a semi-curious expression.

"Does she have another package she needs me to deliver?"

"Yes, but she said you didn't have to deliver it until noon." Cocking her head, Marlene grins happily, because this meant... "You can play with us till then, right?"

Cloud stares down at them for a slight pause before nodding his head ever so slightly. "But later, okay? I'm gonna sleep a little longer." He tells them, making them smile.

"Okay, Cloud." Marlene says, and runs out of the room, followed by Denzel.

Cloud watched them leave, and sighed again. He didn't feel like sleeping anymore. He rubbed the back of his head (it was still throbbing) and went over to his computer. Looking down at the keyboard he noticed that the note he had left himself had been moved.

"That's not right." He muttered to himself, picking it up and looking at it closely. "How'd it get there?" looking around the room as though the walls would give him the answer, he tried to think if he had moved it or not. He was pretty sure he hadn't.

He turned back to look at the blank computer screen, and sits down in front of it. He signs on and goes onto his account. He was planning on checking the data bases to see if anyone had been on that night, but before he could he thought to himself. _'Tifa gets on all the time. She probably saw it and moved it…crap...What if she read what I wrote?'_

He bit his lip, and suddenly he shook his head slowly. _'No. Tifa'd probably think it'd be too boring to read anything I wrote.' _he thinks, and decides to not look into it. He wanted to trust Tifa; she was one of the few people who tolerated his silence.

Biting his lip again, he turned off the computer and walked out of the room. He passes Tifa's room, and noticed her door is opened. He was going to walk past, but something caught his eye. There were two large books sitting atop a smaller one.

"What in the world…?" Cloud muttered, walking in and picking the two larger books up.

He cocked his head as he saw her diary sitting there. Placing the other two books on the bed, he picked up the diary and fliped it over in his hands. Why would she put two large books over it? He shrugged and was about to put the diary down when he suddenly remembered what he had read in it the day before. His brow furrowed as he remembered what she had said about being terrified of him, and it made him curious as to what else she had written about him.

He listened closely for anyone coming up the steps, or down the hall, and when he was satisfied no one was there he sat down on the bed and opened it to the second entry.

_'Dear Diary,_

_Marlene was telling me about a boy she liked at her school today, and about how Denzel was teasing her about it. She wanted me to make Denzel back off, but I have to admit that it's rather funny and I can't blame him. Apparently the little boy that Marlene is attracted to is a bit like Cloud. He's quiet and a little lonely, but he talks to her. Marlene says he's a nice boy, and that he doesn't want to talk to anybody because he has nothing to say to them. She says that he has lots to say to her though. Denzel said it was true; that he is quiet and that he is a little lonely and that he does talk to Marlene, and only Marlene._

_It's not that that bugs me though, it's what Marlene said. She says: "You understand, right Tifa? You like Cloud, right?"_

_I'm not really sure what I should have told her. I'm not even sure I like Cloud that way anymore. I'm pretty sure I don't, because he's bent on **her**. Can't really blame him. She was a really sweat girl, and she was nice to everyone. She liked helping out, and she was sweet and gentle. Not like me. I'm kind of… 'tough, and ruff' as Cid said. I like helping people, but I'm not as nice about it. I like yelling and shaking people into seeing stuff, and **she** used gentle words that I don't think I could say. Anyway, it's not important anymore, although I do think Cloud needs to get a girl. Maybe that girl that owns the flower shop down the street, or that girl who works for her dad at the bank. I'll get Yuffie or Reno to help…no. Not Reno, he's an idiot. Maybe Vincent._

_Good night."_

"Are you kidding me?" Cloud mutters, his brows furrowed and his mouth opened slightly. "A girl?" he says, shaking his head and closing his books. "That's a little too much information for one night…and why Reno?" he asks himself.

He stands up and puts the three books back where they were. He wasn't sure which entry bugged him more: the first one or the second one. Both were a little disturbing, and seemed a bit judging of him. Why was she so eager to get into his life that way? He kind of wished she would just back off of it all. There was no need for her to get into his love life, not that he had one really.

He walked out of the room, shaking his head, and started down the stairs. He was about to round a corner when he bumps into Tifa who was coming out of the kitchen door with a drink in her hands for the only customer she had at that moment.

"Oh. Sorry Cloud. Didn't see you." She said, smiling up at him.

Tight lipped, Cloud nodded, and watched her walk past. His throat was dry, and he couldn't talk. He was suddenly afraid she'd find out about him reading her diary, and then what? Sweating slightly he hurried into the kitchen and out the back door. He picked up the package and mounted his motorbike: he'd deliver the package a little early.

Just before he turned it on, his cell phone went off. He picked it up and looks at it, seeing Yuffie's name and number flash in blue across the front. Sighing, he fliped it open, knowing she'd be bugging him about it if he didn't answer, and brought the ear piece up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"HEY!" she yells, making him jerk his head back, away from the ear piece.

"Ugh…Yuffie, do you have to yell?" Cloud asks, gingerly bringing the phone back towards his ear.

"Sorry, but you _never_ answer."

"I wonder why…" Cloud muttered sarcastically.

"Meanie. Anyway, so how'd your delivery go last night?"

"How do you know I made a delivery?" Cloud asks quizzically.

"You told me on the web last night. Remember?"

"No."

"Come on. You were on your journal last night!"

"No."

"Yes you were! You talked to me!"

"No I didn't. You're crazy."

"No I'm not!"

"I gotta go Yuffie. Take some medicine, and lie down." Cloud says, smirking ever so slightly.

"Meanie." She repeats herself, as both of them hang up.

Cloud sighed, and shook his head, turning on the motor bike and driving off. Yuffie was obviously going crazy. He was barely at Tifa's yesterday, let alone on the computer…

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_Puff: Please review._


	5. Chapter 5

Diclaimer: I do not own anything of Final Fantasy.

Author's Note: I'm trying to work on sticking in one tense, so if I don't do that, please tell me. :D

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Tifa was gone that day, and so were Denzel and Marlene. Cloud was all by himself, and enjoying it immensely. He hadn't had one job to do that day, nobody was trying to make him play hide and seek and nobody was bugging him about calling Cid about whether or not the oil in his bike was done being changed. He was entirely relaxed…with a small white book in his hands.

He sighed, as he flipped the book over in his hands. He was trying to look at the back cover, but for some reason it was glued shut. What was back there? He had read three entries in the past half hour, and luckily they were all just mindless banter about her hair, or the diner, or the orphans. With each entry had come a sense of foreboding, and a sense of regret. He shouldn't have been looking at them. They were Tifa's, but the information the pages contained were so...interesting. He wasn't really even sure why.

"Hmph…" he sighed at the thought of it. The way that small book was overpowering him was so stupid. He couldn't even explain why he had gotten it out and was reading it.

He opened the book again to the next entry, and was relieved to find that it didn't start out talking about him. It actually started out talking about Reno:

_"Dear Diary,_

_Reno asked me out today."_

Cloud furrowed his eyebrows. That would mean that she had written this entry just last week. He was nearing the present entry, obviously.

_"I didn't know what to say!"_ the diary read _"So I just told him I'd think about it. He gave me flowers when he asked. It was really sweet, I suppose. He even got my favorite flower, but I'm not sure how he would have figured that one out. The only people that know what it is are Cloud, Marlene, and Denzel, and that's only because the day we went on the picnic Marlene brought me some wild flowers and I was really happy because they were my favorite, and I hadn't thought that they grew wild anymore._

_Anyway, when I told him I'd think about it I couldn't tell what his emotions about it were. He just kept a straight face and said, 'Okay. Take your time.' And left! I mean, I'm glad he didn't pester, but, and I'm serious when I say this, I think he has a tutor on how to treat me! He just didn't act himself. Usually he's a pig when it comes to women, or maybe all of what I've been told by Cid who heard it from Rufus who heard it from Rude was just nonsense, and I'm completely wrong about him. That's possible, right?"_

"I guess." Cloud says, as he started to break out in a sweat. Actually, he was the one who had "tutored" Reno. He had told him what to say, and how to say it and everything that he knew Tifa would need to hear if Reno wanted her to say 'Yes'.

_"So, Reno left me confused and wondering…and blushing, though I'd never admit it to anyone. I don't understand why it would confuse me so much! But I am! I'm confused, and stressed, and I want it all to go away, because, in truth, he's almost got me saying 'Yes'."_

"Why?!" Cloud blurted out, surprising himself. He didn't know why he had yelled that. His eyes had slightly widened, and they darted around the room as though looking for a place to escape. He felt his heart pounding within his chest from the adrenaline rush that had gone through his body. He shook his head, and looked back down at the book. He wanted to keep reading, but he had doubts of actually being able to do it.

He had to. He looked back down at it, and read the rest of it.

_"And I want to say 'Yes' and then again I want to say 'No' and I'm not sure which to say, and I'm not sure which one would be best for the rest of us: Denzel, and Marlene, and Cloud. What I do affects them too, and vice versa, now that Cloud has decided to hang around more and more. I just don't know._

_Marlene is coming down the hall calling my name. Probably an upset stomach._

_Tifa"_

Cloud sat there for a few minutes, not bothering with anything about him. He hadn't even bothered to close the book. His thoughts were focused around that one line _'…he's almost got me saying 'Yes'.'_ He felt like he was losing his best friend, or sister, or whatever it was he considered her to be. She was his best friend, and the only one that could tolerate him being within a five mile radius for more than a week.

The phone rang, and made him jump out of his slump. He reached over and picked it up, holding it to his ear.

"Hello?" he muttered.

"Hey. I thought Tifa might be there." It was Reno.

"She took Denzel and Marlene with her. I don't know where they went; something about Denzel needing some new clothes." Cloud said. Why was he telling Reno about this?

"I'll call back later then."

"No. Don't."

"...Why not?" the reply was suspiscious, and somewhat surprised.

"Because--" Cloud wasn't really sure why because, and was kicking himself for getting into this situation.

"Why?" Reno pestered. He sounded slightly annoyed.

"Because--" This time, Cloud was interrupted by Rude who was starting to yell at Reno on the other end.

_"Look, Reno, all I'm saying is leave.the.stupid.lid.on.the.pickles! The whole room smells like viniga--!"_

"I've gotta go Cloud. I'll call back later." a rather annoyed Reno could be heard just barely over Rude's yelling as he ended the conversation and hung up.

Cloud nearly slammed the phone down onto its receiver. He massaged his temples with his index fingers, and tried to clear his mind. His eyes squeezed shut, and his lips squeezed together. His fingers moved methodically about his temples. Grabbing the little white book roughly, he threw it onto Tifa's bed where he had found it earlier, and stormed out. He decided he would go and pick up his bike.

He grabbed his jacket, and pulled it on roughly. He didn't know why he was so angry, just that he was and he didn't know who he was angry at. It was definitely either himself, Reno, or Tifa…or Cid for waiting so long to get his bike's oil changed. He'd blame everything on Cid; it worked best when he used Cid as an excuse. It was more conceivable. He slammed the door on his way out, and walked down the street. It was cold out and he could see his own breath in the air rise like steam. The sky was overcast, and everybody out was wearing heavy clothing. You could smell the fresh sent that rain always brought with it, and Cloud had a slight suspicion that it would snow on them all that night. He decided to take the next day off and take Denzel and Marlene to the park to play in the snow. Tifa would probably be too busy with Reno, but he supposed he could invite her too…for Marlene's sake.

* * *

R&R 


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy

* * *

Cloud sighed as he removed the goggles from his eyes. He was truly a sorry sight. Around his eyes and on his face there was dirt and mud with the shape of his goggles apparent. His goggles themselves were pretty much caked with mud. It had been a wet day, and the back roads of his delivery route had been particularly dirty.

"I think I'll take tomorrow off…" he mutters to himself, stepping off the bike and going into the diner. A shower sounded really good at that moment.

His steps left a track of mud up the stairs and down the hall that he was sure Tifa wouldn't appreciate, but at last he came to the bathroom. As he reached for the knob the door suddenly opened and out walked Marlene.

"Cloud!" she says, excitedly, about to hug him. Cloud held her back by the shoulders.

"You probably should wait for a hug until after I'm clean." He says, looking down at her.

"Okay, Cloud." She says, smiling, and begins to run down the hall. "Don't forget!" she calls back, "Tomorrow's my birthday!" she laughs excitedly and goes down the stairs and into the kitchen where Tifa was getting food.

Cloud sighs, and grabs a towel from under the sink. Turning on the shower he begins to think about all the deliveries he had made. He sighed, and closed his eyes for a moment, just thinking.

* * *

Cloud walked down the hall, later that night, contemplating on whether or not he wanted to question Yuffie about Tifa's excuse. For one thing, Cloud was pretty much sure that Yuffie _didn't_ know. Another thing is that Tifa always smiled that odd looking smile when she lied. He didn't want to not believe her, but the facts seemed against her. Then again, where else could she have gotten that information?

As he walked past her room he noticed that diary again, and he couldn't help but pause in the doorway, staring at it. He looked down the hall one way, then the other, then the other way again before going inside and picking it up.

Sighing, he set it back down. "No. Not again. That's Tifa's life, not mine…" he muttered.

"_But it's about you."_ Someone argued with him in his head.

"_So?"_ he asked his thoughts.

"_What does she think about you?"_

"_I don't care."_

"_Yes you do."_

"_Shut up. Go away. You're stupid."_

"_I'm not the one who has conversations with myself."_

"_Yes you do. You…Shut up."_ Cloud thought, smacking his forehead with his palm.

He looked down at the diary, his ears turning red, as they usually did when he became nervous. (He was glad his hair was long enough to cover it). He wanted to read it really, really badly. He wanted to know what she thought about him. Maybe there was something in there about Reno, like last night.

"_Yeah."_ He reasons with himself. _"It's okay if I look just to help out Reno, isn't it?"_

And with that sorry excuse, he picked the diary up once more. He sited on Tifa's bed, and opened it, for the third time, to the third entry.

_'Dear diary,_

_'Ever notice that Cloud looks really hot when he smirks?' That's what Yuffie told me anyway. I dunno. He doesn't smirk that much to even notice.'_

"_Note to self: Never.Smirk.Again."_ Cloud thought, making a mental note within himself.

_'Anyway, that's beside the point. It kept bugging me all day and I had to let it out. I couldn't tell Cloud, could I?'_

"I'm glad you didn't."

_'So, today was my birthday. It went really well, at least, I think so. Cloud took the day off, and I closed the diner and he took Marlene, Denzel, and me to a beach. Marlene and Denzel went swimming. I didn't want to get wet, and neither did Cloud so we just watched. We took a picnic with us, and so we ate on the beach and then all of us built a sandcastle. I had a blast. Marlene and Denzel gave me a necklace for my birthday that they had saved up by working for Cloud and making local deliveries. Cloud gave me a matching bracelet, but I think he gave me a better present than that. He smiled at me. In fact he smiled the entire time we were at the beach, and that meant more to me than any bracelet that he could have given me.'_

"_What? Vincent was right?"_ Cloud thinks to himself as his brow creased. When Cloud had asked Vincent what he thought Tifa would like Vincent had responded: "Just smile." And so, Cloud had done just that, along with the bracelet, but he had no idea that the smile would mean so much to her.

_'When it got dark we all packed up and Cloud drove home. Me and Marlene were riding in an attachment Cloud had put on the side, while he and Denzel had ridden on the motor bike. Marlene fell asleep in my arms on the way home. Luckily Denzel stayed awake. Otherwise he would have fallen off the bike. Well, I have to go. It's one in the morning, and I'm wiped out. Good night.'_

Cloud closed the book and sat it on the night stand before placing his head in his hands and thinking. So, all this time all Tifa wanted is for him to smile. Okay, he could do that, or at least he thought he could. Maybe later though, when his head wasn't buzzing and there wasn't a ringing in his ears; it sounded like a cellphone...

Or rather, it was. His pocket began vibrating with the ringing of his phone and made a loud buzzing noise.

Swiftly, he grabbed the phone, flipped it open, and placed it against his ear.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Hey, Cloud. Listen I need your help." It was Reno.

"What for?"

"What should I do, about…you know?"

"Rufus and Rude are right behind you."

"Maybe."

Cloud didn't want to answer, but he very well couldn't keep it in...could he? It's not like he had any reason to stop Reno.

"Be less immature, get along with children better, and act like you care."

"Why don't _you_ date her instead, if you know so much about her?"

"Becuase you'd probably attack me, and I don't feel like killing you."

"Touche. Okay, see ya. Wait what should I--"

_Click._ Cloud hung up on him.

* * *

R&R 


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy.

Author's Note: Eh...I messed up on the chapter orders, as some of you may have guessed. It should be fixed after this.

* * *

"Tifa! Tifa!" Marlene calls early that next morning.

"mif fisha ma see…." Tifa mutters, as she lays there with her head into the pillow. Her arm hung over the side, and her leg was barely on the mattress.

"Tifa!" Marlene calls, running in and jumping up on the bed. She stands on her feet and jumps around chanting: "Tifa! Tifa! Tifa!"

"Whaaaat?" Tifa moans, looking up at her.

"Cloud took the day off! He's gonna take us all somewhere! Will you _please_ close the diner for my birthday?"" Marlene says, jumping up and landing on her knees next to Tifa.

"Mhm…" Tifa says, "Which means more sleep for me. Go wake up Cloud." She says, closing her eyes.

"Okay, Tifa." Marlene says, and climbs off the bed. "Cloud! Cloud! Cloud!" She calls, running off and running through the hall.

"No…" Cloud moans as Marlene runs into his room.

"Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! Tifa said to wake up! So wake up!" Marlene says, pulling on Cloud's hand to try and drag him out of bed. This, however, was futile, seeing as she was so much smaller than him. All she managed was to drag his arm and head off of the mattress, but the rest of his body wouldn't budge.

"Oomph…" Marlene says, as her hand slips, and she lands on her bottom. "Cloouud. Play Hide and Seek with me." She pouts, looking up at him with large bright eyes.

Cloud opens one eye and looks down at the pitiful form of the small girl who wanted one of her best friends to wake up (who wouldn't) and play hide and seek.

He sighs, and covers his eyes. Marlene is about to cry when suddenly Cloud speaks, "One…two…three…"

Marlene grins and giggles, and runs off as Cloud reaches four. At about six Cloud gets up and changes out of his sleeping pants and shirt into his day clothes.

"Eighteen…nineteen…twenty….twenty one…twenty two…thirty!" he says, feeling she had had more than enough time to hide.

"You skipped twenty three through twenty nine." Denzel says walking into Cloud's room, blurry eyed. He had just woken up.

"So I did." Cloud says, and looks down at him. "You wanna play too?"

"No. I'm too hungry. I'm gonna get breakfast." He says, and walks down the stairs into the kitchen to find some waffles he could heat up.

Cloud sighs, and walks out of the room to go and find Marlene. "Marlene." He calls softly, knowing Tifa was still asleep. "Marlene."

A little giggle could be heard from the closet next to him. He smirks slightly but almost immediately doesn't. _"Don't smirk…don't smirk…"_ he tells himself over and over, Tifa's diary coming to mind.

Cloud's hand closes around the doorknob, and slowly brings it open. "Marlene?" he says, reaching into the closet. His hand rests on top of something silky, and he smiles. "Is that your bow, Marlene?" he asks, as suddenly Marlene shoots out of the closet into Tifa's room. Cloud follows her, and is surprised to find that…Tifa wasn't there.

* * *

Tifa sat at the computer in Cloud's room, beating Yuffie's character's butt on her online game. _'I win.'_ She types to Yuffie as the words _'Ninjaness76 has been defeated' _appear.

'**Ninjaness76**: No fair. You used that sword thing!'

'**Tifa3**: You used it last battle.'

'**Ninjaness76**: And I still didn't win!'

'Better luck next time, Yuffie.' Tifa types, and begins to let her character roam about. Tifa sighs, and then notices the sheet of paper with Cloud's online journal password on it.

She stares at it thoughtfully, contemplating on whether reading it for a short time. "Sure, why not." She shrugs, logging on to his journal after logging off of her game site.

She scans the entry and then finds one that was made on her birthday:

_'Hey,_

_Cloud6 again. Today was Tifa's birthday, and I took her and the orphans to the beach. I think she really enjoyed it. She didn't get in the water though, so I stayed out to keep her company. It was more fun watching Denzel and Marlene anyway._

_I fell asleep on the sand, though. When I woke up the three of them had piled sand up on me then carved it out to look like a mermaid_.'

"I had forgotten about that." Tifa smiles, and chuckles.

_'It was funny, I suppose. Marlene took a picture of it. I'm not sure where she put that photo. I think she lost it on our way home. I hope no one we know finds it. That would be embarrassing. Knowing Cid or Yuffie they would post it on the internet._

_I bought Tifa a bracelet to go with the necklace that Marlene and Denzel had bought her. The bracelet was white gold, and was decorated with a couple of diamonds. The necklace had a small silver chain with a diamond that looked like a tear drop hanging in the middle as a pendant. (Marlene and Denzel made local deliveries for me to earn the money to buy it for her.) It looks nice on her, or at least, I think it does. Silver and white gold suit her better than the yellow gold. Too bad her ears aren't pierced twice. There were some earrings that matched the necklace better than the bracelet but they require two holes in each ear. Maybe for her birthday next year I'll take her to get her ears pierced again. She's afraid it'll hurt, but I keep telling her it doesn't. I don't understand how she can take a punch in the stomach and not a pinch in the ear. No sense what so ever.'_

"Hmph…" Tifa snorted. There was no way he'd get her to pierce her ears again. It didn't feel good the first time! Why induce yourself with pain when it's unnecessary? Besides. When fighting you don't want someone to grab you by the earring and tear it out of your ear, do you...then again...why did she wear the pair she had now if that was the case?

_'She'll probably fight against me tooth and nail just to not have her ears pierced, but I think they'd be really good on her.'_

"Huh?" Tifa says, cocking her head.

_Denzel still wants to learn how to fight, but I think he should learn fighting from Tifa first. Things like how to be fast and powerful with no weapons, then when he's older he can use weapons. If anybody has any suggestions on that call me and tell me._

_I have to go. I promised Marlene and Denzel I'd take them to the park. Marlene is here tugging on my elbow to hurry me up._

_Cloud6'_

"Well that was interesting." Tifa says, cocking an eyebrow. "So he thinks another piercing in the ear would look good, huh?" she says, then smiles. "Hey Marlene!" she says, logging off the computer and shutting it down.

Marlene pokes her head around the door and looks in. "Yes, Tifa?"

"You know how you asked if you could get your ears pierced?"

"Yes."

"Well, can that be my birthday present to you?"

"Yes! Oh, thank you Tifa!" Marlene cries, and runs in to hug Tifa about her legs. Tifa smiles, and places a hand on her head. "Will you get yours pierced too, Tifa? I kind of don't want to do it alone."

"Umm…only if Cloud pays for mine."

"I pay for what?" Cloud asks, coming in. "I thought we were playing hide and seek, Marlene." He says, looking down at her.

"Tifa's gonna let me get my ears pierced." Marlene says, smiling up at Cloud. "She said she'd get hers done too, if you paid for hers." She grins.

Cloud cocks an eyebrow at Tifa, "I thought you were afraid to--"

"I got over it." Tifa says, smiling at him. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad." She says, though inside she got butterflies in her stomach. The thought of getting her ears pierced nearer to the cartilage made her nervous.

"Sure. Okay. I'll take you guys to get your ears pierced now." He says, and walks out the door. Marlene follows dragging Tifa behind her.

Denzel went with them, but Tifa wouldn't let him get his ear pierced like Cloud. "Only the girls." She says, smiling down at him. Denzel looked a little put out, but felt better once they all got some ice cream at an out door ice cream parlor.

"I don't know why you'd want one." Tifa says, shaking her head at Denzel. "You're handsome enough without one. Besides it might make you look girly."

"But Cloud's got one." Denzel says.

"His earring is a doorknocker. That's not girly." Marlene chimes in, making Tifa chuckle.

Marlene smiles, as the diamonds in each of her ears shone in the sun light.

Tifa looks up at Cloud and smiles at the sight of his ear ring, as the ear piercings in her ears glimmered. Cloud gave a small smile back.

'_More feminine…'_ Tifa thinks, looking up at the sky. _'But if Reno likes me the way I am, why shouldn't Cloud?' _she thinks, looking over at him._ 'Maybe he does, and I'm just kidding myself that he doesn't. Then again, why do I care? Like I said, I don't think I even like Cloud that way anymore…' _

Sighing, she looks down at her ice cream, and licks it. "Mmm. Chocolate." She smiles, looking down at Marlene.

"Mmm. Strawberry" Marlene mimics Tifa, making Cloud give a small smile, though Denzel didn't notice anything but his melting ice cream.

"Let's go home." Cloud says, standing up.

Later that night Tifa pulled out her diary. "I wonder what my customers will think when they see me with more earrings or more importantly, what I'm gonna do if Yuffie finds out…"

* * *

R&R


	8. Chapter 8

Puffthefishxx: Well THIS took forever to update -.- Sorry bout that. School and stuff got busy. Anyway, Disclaimer: I own nothing of Final Fantasy.

* * *

'_Today has been weird.'_ read the telltale entries to Cloud's personal online journal. _'Tifa's acting oddly. I don't understand it at all! One moment she was fine and then she started snapping at me. Yuffie says she's just PMSing. Vincent says she's just having a hard time this year. Cid says she's just a woman, but I don't think that's it. She looks hurt, and I don't know what's wrong. I wonder if it was something Reno did, but I'm afraid to ask. I'm also angry about it, and really want to know. I don't understand at all why she should be so angry with me or anyone else for that matter. _

_I caught her crying in her room. She acted like she wasn't, but I knew she was. It scared me. I've never seen Tifa cry before. She looked…fragile. Tifa never looks like that, not the Tifa I know. She's always the one to yell at me…set me straight whenever I'm acting like my old self. _

_I didn't know what to do to get her to stop crying. I was completely lost. I'm not exactly the best at sympathizing with people. If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate…anyone but Yuffie and Cid that is._

_Cloud6'_

Tifa wasn't sure whether to be angry or sad. She was hurt that she had made Cloud believe that he wasn't much good to her. She was angry that he had the nerve to tell everyone on the internet about it.

Her heart was torn in two and it wasn't helping that the phone was ringing incessantly. Her hand reached out, her eyes never leaving the computer screen, moving around on the desk until she gripped the handle of the smooth telephone receiver. Its last ring resonated in her ears as she jerked it off the phone jack and placed it to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked, as sweetly as she could manage herself.

"Tifa?!"

"Yuffie?" Tifa asks quizzically, surprise and worry in her voice. Yuffie sounded truly upset.

"Tifa! Oh thank goodness! Get out of the house! Now!"

"What? Why—?"

_Click._

The phone went dead without any warning, and fear gripped at Tifa's heart. The room was unnaturally quiet as Tifa's heart pounded within her chest. She could hear every beat as though it were a drum sounding just next to her ear. Blindly, she set the receiver back on the phone jack and turned around, dashing out of Cloud's room and down the hall.

Her feet fell like drums as she ran down the hallway, down the stairs, into the kitchen. She felt the blood pumping through her veins as she grabbed the door handle and jerked it. Nothing gave.

"NO! Nonononono—" Tifa called, jerking at the handle over and over again. "It shouldn't be locked, it shouldn't be—" she chanted, jerking harder and harder as each second passed. It was as though she felt that if she jerked it hard enough and enough times, she could get it open. It was vain though, to think that this was happen.

Her entire body froze as she felt the gentle pressure of someone's hand on her shoulder. She felt sweat bead up on her forehead as the pressure of their fingers strengthened sending Tifa's adrenaline rush into hyper drive. She panicked, balling her hand into a fist, turning and planting the fist on their jaw with as much force as she could muster.

"Holy _**CRAP**_ Tifa!" screamed a very annoyed, rather injured Cloud as he fell back into some pots on the table behind him. Blood gushed from his lip and down his chin and onto his teeth. He coughed and spit into the sink next to him, trying to relieve his mouth of the taste of salt and copper.

Tifa was mortified. Her cheeks blushed crimson as she grabbed a towel from the rack next to her, rushing it over to Cloud who spit into the sink again. He turned on the faucet to let the water take the blood and spit down the drain, while his hand reached out and received the towel gratefully, running it under the water and then wiping off his chin.

"I'm so sorry, Cloud." Tifa whispered to him, extremely upset with herself.

She heard him sigh as he cupped his hands under the faucet and drew in some water, swishing it around in his mouth and spitting it out. The water was red before it drained down into the sink and finally the blood stopped flowing so badly.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" Cloud turned on her angrily, wiping his mouth off with the wet cloth again. His fingers gently touched the cut in his lip where her fist had forced his teeth to ram into the skin, tearing it open and winced at the soreness. He could already feel it swelling twice its normal size.

Tifa shook her head, looking rather ashamed of herself. "Sorry…" she muttered.

"Just get me some ice, please?" Cloud sighed, closing his eyes and ignoring the searing pain of the cut moving against his teeth as he spoke.

Tifa nodded to him and went to the fridge, retrieving a bag of ice she usually kept for Denzel whenever he was hurt. "Here." She handed it to him, and he took it gratefully, pressing it against his mouth. He winced at the sudden chill but was glad to have it when his lip slowed its persistent throbbing.

"Sorry." Tifa tried again, scratching the back of her head and placing her other hand on her hip. She really didn't know what to say. It seemed silly to have believed Yuffie in the first place.

"It's okay," Cloud sighs, opening his eyes and looking over at her. "Why did you hit me anyway?" he asks curiously. "You were terrified of _something_."

Tifa blushed, and cleared her throat, "Ahem, well, er….ahem…Yuffie called and told me that I needed to get out of the house and that's when the line went dead." She explained, hoping he would believe her.

Cloud looked perplexed by this, "I _guess_ that's a good reason." He mutters, shifting the ice pack so that it wouldn't stick to his skin. "I'm going up to my room." He groans, turning and slowly walking out of the kitchen.

Tifa could hear his footsteps as he walked up the steps and then listened as she heard his door close. She had really made a fool of herself this time.

Feeling lower than she had in a while, she decided to clean up around the kitchen. Some blood had dripped onto the floor and she needed to take care of that and then Cloud had left his mud speckled goggles and gloves on the table. Picking up the rag Cloud had used, she mopped up the blood before stopping up the sink and filling it with soapy water. She let the cool water run over the goggles and the gloves before dropping both of them into the water. She hoped she didn't shrink the leather again; he'd already been through three pairs of gloves in six months.

She grabbed the trash bag then, taking it out of the bin and tying off the top so none of the garbage spilled out and was out the door (after finding the key and unlocking it of course) with it in no time, opening a garbage lid and throwing the bag inside. It didn't occur to her that she wasn't the only one in the back alley.

Another hand came to rest on her shoulder and she rolled her eyes. "Cloud, I'm really sorry about knocking your teeth out, but it's your own fault if I hit you—" she turned at this point and gasped. This wasn't Cloud…

His red eyes glared down at her and his pale face was less than inviting. "Hello." He speaks as lowly as he can. "I think you have something that's mine." He smirks, letting his fingers grip tightly to her shoulder, keeping her from escaping.

Tifa growled, quickly jerking her hand back and thrusting it towards his face. He caught it in the nick of time, holding the fist in his palm and gripping it tightly.

Tifa let out a cry of pain as he squeezed tighter and tighter, crushing her fingers. With water boiling up in her eyes from the pain and anger she thrust her other hand up to his face. With relief he released her first hand, jerking her other fists to a stop and beginning to crush that one too. She cried out in pain as she heard a small snap from one of her knuckles. No doubt, it was fractured…

At this point he stopped squeezing her fist. "Now." He orders, as he released her hand and let her sink to the ground, cradling her broken hand. "You're going to give me that materia I need." He hisses, smirking.

* * *

R&R


End file.
